This is the first part of a five-part article series providing a comprehensive overview of how to install, configure, and use IBM Lotus Notes v8, explaining the fundamental components and terminology so that new users can feel more familiar with the product. In Part 1 we explain key features and ...

Wiki Help describes basic tasks that you can accomplish in the wiki, such as creating and editing articles, basic editing tasks, subscribing to feeds, and providing feedback on the wiki. It also includes information on how to use the supported wiki markup for formatting. For a quick reference of ...

Wiki Help describes basic tasks that you can accomplish in the wiki, such as creating and editing articles, basic editing tasks, subscribing to feeds, and providing feedback on the wiki. It also includes information on how to use the supported wiki markup for formatting. For a quick reference of wiki markup, select "Wiki markup help" located below the "Save" button when you are in edit mode.

In addition, the home page contains a list of helpful or frequently used links to help you find information quickly.

Tabs

Tab

Description

Home tab

The Home tab is the main entry point and default view into the wikis.

Product Documentation tab

The Product documentation tab takes you to a product documentation category page where you can see a list of all of the available product documentation for the product. Some of the links take you to documentation within the wiki, and some links will go to external sites. Both types of links are clearly marked.

Community Articles tab

The Community Articles tab takes you to a listing of all articles that were contributed by the community, that are not product documentation, or learning materials.

Learning Center tab

The Learning Center tab contains resources such as demonstrations, videos, tutorials, reference cards, and Web seminars to help you get started using the product.

IBM Redbooks

The IBM Redbooks tab contains a listing of the IBM Redbooks in the wiki, or if there are no IBM Redbooks in the wiki, displays links to IBM Redbooks resources.

With the exception of the home tab, each tab has sub-tabs that enable you to find information in different ways:

Recently Added: All articles in the current category (or global if on the Home tab), sorted by most recently added article.

Recently Edited: All articles in the current category (or global if on Home tab), sorted by date most recently edited.

Alphabetical: All articles in the current category (or global if on Home tab), sorted alphabetically by title.

Authored by Me: All articles in the current category (or global if on Home tab), that were authored by the currently logged-in user. You must log in to see any articles in this view.

By Author: All articles in the current category (or global if on Home tab), sorted by author name (alphabetical). Within each author's list, articles are sorted by date added, most recent first.

The Home tab provides a list of views to help you find information in different ways.

These views include all articles in the wiki.

Recently Added

Recently Edited

Top Rated

These views are specific to your activity in the wiki. Log in to the site to access these additional views.

Authored by Me

Edited by Me

Commented by Me

Search scopes

Your user profile

Product Documentation in the wiki

Your wiki might include official IBM Product Documentation, or links to Product Documentation on sites outside of the wiki.
You can easily find documentation in the wiki by clicking the "Product Documentation" tab at the top of the wiki.
When you choose this tab, a category page displays with links to the available product documentation.

Navigating Product Documentation and IBM Redbooks

Product Documentation and IBM Redbooks have a navigation structure similar to an information center, where you expand topics in a table of contents on the left, and the article displays on the right. To reach this navigation, you must first choose an documentation set or collection from the table.

The image below shows the navigation for a collection of product documentation.

Product Documentation is open for editing, however, you can always view the original non-editable version of a piece of documentation by viewing version 1 of the article.

Navigating Community Articles and Learning Center

Community Articles and Learning Center articles are organized by categories.

At the top of the Community Articles and Learning Center tabs you'll find a list of categories to help you filter.

In some cases, there might be sub-categories to choose from to help you further narrow your focus.

You can also use the sub-tabs to sort the articles:

Recently Added

Recently Edited

Alphabetical

Authored by Me

By Author

Finding articles using tags

When articles are created, authors can use tags to help classify their articles on a certain subject. Tags display in the article information where articles are listed, and are clickable, so that you can find all articles with a specific tag.

Search

Search provides ways to narrow or filter results to surface what you are searching for higher in the results.

Search features include the following:

Search scope

The Search scope drop down field allows you to narrow your search to a specific type of content or any other scope defined, such as product version.

The search scope field is located next to the search field.

To use this, select a scope from the list, enter a search, and submit to only search within that scope.

The drop down also contains an entry called Custom search scope... which allows you to create your own personal search scopes to save and use in the future. This feature requires that you log in.

Search field

The search field enables you to quickly enter in search terms.

This field works with the search scope drop down field.

This field also supports the use of Boolean operators.

This search finds articles that contain all the words you specify, unless Boolean operators are used. The words can occur in any order in the article, together or separated.

The search is case-insensitive: the case of the specified words does not matter.

Using Custom search scopes

You can scope your search to search within a particular type of wiki articles. By default, there are five search scopes already defined:

Entire wiki - Searches all articles in the wiki

Community articles - Searches articles of the type "Community", which is defined by the category you select when you submit an article via the Web

Product Documentation - Searches articles of the type "Product Documentation", which is the formal product documentation created by IBM

IBM Redbooks - Searches articles of the type "IBM Redbooks, which is created by IBM

Learning Center - Searches articles of the type "Learning", which is defined by the category you select when you submit an article via the Web.

In addition to these standard search scopes, you can create your own.

Create your own custom search scope and save it for later use.
1. Select "Custom search scope..." from the menu next to the search box (and sign in if prompted).

2. Select your search scope criteria.
3. Name your search scope and click Save and Close.
4. The new search scope is automatically selected from the content type drop-down.
5. Type your search term in the search box and click the search icon to search within the specified scope.

Edit or delete your custom search scopes.
1. Select "Custom search scope..." from the menu next to the search box (and sign in if prompted).
2. Select Edit an Existing Scope
3. Select the existing search scope that you want to edit or delete.
4. The search scope details appear in the fields. Edit the information and Save.
5. Or, click the Delete button to remove it.
6. Click Save and Close to return to the wiki.

Search scopes are saved for future use. Remember to log in to see your saved search scopes. Search scopes do not appear if you are not logged on.

Quick reference of supported Boolean operators

Operator

Search examples

Results

None defined

dog cat mouse
dog and cat

Returns articles that contain the words "dog" AND "cat" AND "mouse" anywhere in the article.
Returns articles that contant the words "dog" AND "and" AND "cat" anywhere in the article.

AND

dog AND cat
dog AND cat mouse
dog AND "dog house"

Returns articles that contain the words "dog" AND "cat" anywhere in the article.
Returns articles that contain the words "dog" AND "cat" AND "mouse"
Returns articles that contain the phrases "dog" AND "dog house" anywhere in the article.

OR

dog OR cat
dog OR "dog house"

Returns articles that contain the words "dog" OR "cat" anywhere in the article.
Returns articles that contain the phrases "dog" OR "dog house" anywhere in the article.

NOT

dog NOT cat

Returns articles that contain the word "dog" but do not contain the word "cat"

" "

"dog house is blue"
dog AND "dog house"

Returns articles that contain the exact phrase "dog house is blue" anywhere in the article.
Returns articles that contain the phrases "dog" AND "dog house" anywhere in the article.

*

java*

Returns articles containing that contain the word java followed by any other characters. For example, java, javascript.

SENTENCE

dog SENTENCE cat

Returns articles that contain the words in the same sentence.

PARAGRAPH

dog PARAGRAPH cat

Returns articles that contain the words in the same paragraph.

Search best practice scenarios

Search automatically scopes to the specific Product Documentation you are viewing (or any category you are viewing)

From the Home page, find Product Documentation for a specific product version

1. Select the drop down next to the search field and see if the product and version you are looking for is there. If yes, select it can enter search terms in the field and submit your search.
2. If the product and version you are looking for is not in the drop down you can create a custom search scope, or you can simply use the Filter Search options to narrow your search.

Custom search scope allows you to select the product and version category, name the scope, and save it. Then you can select the custom search scope from the drop down, enter a search term, and submit a search. Your custom search scopes are only available to you, so do not forget to log in to view them.

Viewing and comparing a previous version of an article

To view a previous version of an article, open the article and expand the Versions section at the bottom of the article.
A list of all of the available versions displays, along with the date and time the version was saved, and by whom.
To view a different version, select the number of the version you want to view.

To compare a previous version of an article to a more recent version of an article, use the Compare versions feature at the top of the versions list.
Use the key at the top of the article to distinguish what is deleted content, and what is new or changed content.Limitations of the version differences tool:
Formatting changes and graphics are not captured. Only text comparisons.

Rolling back to a previous version of an article

The wiki administrators have the ability to rollback articles to previous versions. If you would like an article rolled back to a previous version, click Wiki feedback in the Help section for the footer. In the form include the following information:
*Name of wiki
*Name of the article you want to roll back
*Specific version (date and time) you want to roll back to
*Reason you need to roll back the article
The wiki administrators will review the request and determine if an article roll back is needed.

Translated content

There are several ways to view translated content in the wikis:

Machine translations of wiki pages

Articles originally authored in other language

Translated versions of product documentation

Each type is distinctly different, and is accessed using different methods.

Translating a page

Select a language from the Translate Page menu.

You will be prompted to agree to the n.Fluent license agreement, then your page and any subsequent pages you visit will be translated into the chosen language.
At any time you can return to English by selecting "Return to English" from the language list.

Translated versions of product documentation

When product documentation is available in the wiki, there will also be a version of the documentation translated into supported languages.
To access these translations, select the "Translated product documentation" link at the top of the product documentation navigation.

Contributing to the wiki

To add, edit, or comment on an article, you must have a developerWorks Lotus user name and password.
If you have a developerWorks Lotus user name and password, click "Log In" on the top, left side of the wiki.

If you do not have a developerWorks Lotus user name and password, Click Log in, and on the Lotus Registration form, select "Create new registration" and complete and submit the form.

Creating your own articles

1. Click New article. (Log in if prompted)

2. Type the article title in the Title field.

The titleof your article will become the URL for the article

Changing the article's title will not change the URL once it is created and saved.

The title of your article can contain any combination of alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, however, if you need to link to an article whose title contains non-alphanumeric characters, only the following characters are supported for linking:

colon :

dot .

comma ,

apostrophe '

quotations "

dash -

3. Type a summary of your article in the Abstract field. This abstract displays in many of the views and helps the reader determine if the article is relevant to their search without having to open the article. If you do not provide an abstract, the first 300 characters of your article will be used instead, including any preliminary text such as subheads or navigation link labels.
4. Select a category and tags to make your article easier to find. Select all that apply.

IMPORTANT: Wiki articles use a style sheet for a consistent look and feel, therefore font changes such as color, size or font face will be overwritten by the style sheet. If you would like to format text to use a different color, font face, or font size, then use HTML. You can type HTML directly into the Rich Text Editor and the wiki parser will recognize it and render it appropriately when you have saved the article.

Best practice:
Create an initial draft of your wiki article and save it, then go back into the article and edit it to add your content and format it. This will ensure that your article is saved to the database, and that all wiki functionality is available.

Copy/paste
Copying and pasting is supported, however, the formatting may be lost or may render incorrectly in the published article. It is recommended that you copy and paste the content you want to use in your wiki article into a text editor, such as Notepad first, so that any formatting can be removed, then paste it into the wiki and use the capabilities of the RT editor and the available wiki markup options to format your article.

Recommendations

Editing articles

To edit an article, click Edit at the top or bottom of the article. You can use a combination of wiki markup, HTML, and the tools available from the rich text editor to add or modify the content in an article. A wiki markup reference guide is available at the bottom of the article when you are in edit mode.

Block text from being machine translated

Use for blocks of content:

<div translate="0">text to not translate</div>

Use for word or phrase:

<span translate="0">text to not translate</span>

Commenting on articles

To comment on an article, scroll to the bottom of the article, expand the Comments section, and click Add a comment.

Creating subheadings in a wiki article

You can use wiki markup mixed in with your rich text to get subheadings in your posts, like this:

Wiki markup code for headings:

==My heading 2==

===My heading 3===

====My heading 4====

Headings rendered on the Web:IMPORTANT: Do not use any kind of formatting on wiki markup. If you do, the markup will not work.

Tips:

Because of the limitations of the rich text editor, it is best to add your wiki markup for headings first, then add your content to the wiki.

If your headings don't display properly, the most likely cause is that there is hidden formatting applied to the markup text, which the markup parser can't process. It's always best to create your headings as the first thing you do in the article, then add your text.

Start with heading 2. Your article will automatically use heading 1 as the article title.

Each heading must be unique within the article.

Creating a TOC

When you use wiki markup to designate text as a heading, a table of contents is automatically created at the beginning of the article.

IMPORTANT:

Do not include any none alpha-numeric characters in the heading text. This can cause the heading markup to be ignored.

Do not apply any kind of font formatting to the heading text. This will cause the markup to be ignored.

NOTE: If you choose to use size attributes for your code markup, you must ensure that all three (3) pipe characters are present, even if you only use one of the size attributes. The height attribute must come after the second pipe, the width attribute must come after the third pipe.

Below is an example of a long code sample that uses the a and n optional flags, and height value is left blank (but notice that the pipe is still present) and width values 600.

It is recommended that you always use the width attribute and set it to be no greater than 800 pixels to support users with lower screen resolutions.

* The Hello World of the AJAX Search API

*/

google.load('search', '1');

function OnLoad() {

// Create a search control

var searchControl = new google.search.SearchControl();

// Add in a full set of searchers

var localSearch = new google.search.LocalSearch();

searchControl.addSearcher(localSearch);

searchControl.addSearcher(new google.search.WebSearch());

searchControl.addSearcher(new google.search.VideoSearch());

// Set the Local Search center point

localSearch.setCenterPoint("New York, NY");

// tell the searcher to draw itself and tell it where to attach

searchControl.draw(document.getElementById("content"));

// execute an inital search

searchControl.execute("VW GTI");

}

google.setOnLoadCallback(OnLoad);

In code samples, the back slash character requires special handling. Prefix the character with an escape character, like so:
\\

To insert code samples inline with text use the "no wiki" markup option. Surround the text you do not want parsed with three curly braces "{" as shown in the example below:

Doing so will allow characters that are normally interpreted by browsers to pass through as text. For example:
This sentence contains some characters with angle brackets <to>, <from>, <heading>, and <body>.

Note: Working code samples and executables should not be attached to wiki articles. If you have a piece of code that can be executed, please post it in Lotus Greenhouse and link to it from your wiki article. Go to the Lotus Greenhouse website for more information: https://greenhouse.lotus.com/plugins/plugincatalog.nsf/home.xsp

Adding images and attachments to articles

Please use the following Rich Text Editor method to include graphics:

1. From the editor, click the "insert image" icon. The Image Properties dialog is displayed.
2. Click "Choose File" and select the image file you want to include from your local machine.
3. Click "Send it to the server". After you click this, the Image Information tab displays.
4. In the Image information tab, specify the Alternative Text for the image.
5. Click OK.

Best practices for images:

All images should be resized in a graphics tool outside the wiki before posting them in the wiki.

Do not include graphics wider than 640 pixels to avoid any formatting issues. Large images will affect the layout of the page.

Including multimedia in an article

To include multimedia objects, such as video in your wiki article, you first need to post your article on a media hosting site, such as Youtube.
You can then embed the video into the wiki article using the following HTML code in the article:

where "URL" is the URL to the .swf file hosted on a publicly available Web server.

To embed an HTML file that references a .swf, .wmv, or other media file, use this code:

<iframe src="URL" width="1000" height="650"></iframe>

where "URL" is the URL to the .html file hosted on a publicly available Web server.

In addition, to embedded the multimedia in the article, also include a link to open the object full screen in a new window. Use the following code to create this link:

<a href="URL" target="_blank">Watch the demonstration full screen in a new window</a>

where "URL" is the URL to the .html, .swf, .wmv, or other file

Include the word "Video:" at the beginning of the article title to indicate the type of deliverable.
Categorize the wiki article in the Media Gallery category and any other categories that apply to your video.
Appropriately tag your article by product, task, and deliverable type, for example "demo, video" to make your article easier to find.
In the main body of the article, type a description of the video and some instructional text such as "Click the Play button to start the video".

Creating tables

Use the table option in the editor to create tables. The use of wiki markup to create tables is deprecated.

To create a table:

2. Specify the number of rows and columns, and any other options you'd like for your table.
3. In the Caption field, type the caption you would like to display for the table.
4. The Summary field is used by screen readers. You can use this to type a description for the table to be read by screen readers.
5. When you are finished, click OK. Your table will then be displayed in the editor, ready for you to enter information.

DEPRECATED: Use wiki markup to create a table using the following syntax:

Known issues with linking

In some cases, you might encounter a problem when linking to articles with special characters in their titles. A green plus sign will appear next to the link text indicating that the link didn't work (and allowing you to create a new article from the plus sign). If you encounter this issue, try linking to it externally, by copying the URL of the article you want to link to from the browser, and treating it as an external link, for example:

Deleting an article

If you would like an article deleted from the wiki, click Wiki design feedback in the Help section of the footer. In the form include the following information:

*Name of wiki
*Name of the article you want to delete
*Specific version (date and time) you want to delete
*Reason you need to delete the article

Providing feedback on the wiki

We want your feedback! To provide feedback on using the wiki, click Wiki design feedback in the Help section of the footer.

Using feeds and notifications

To receive notification of the latest updates on the wiki, subscribe to an RSS feed by clicking the Subscribe link. There are many subscription options throughout the wiki, such as subscribing to recently added or edited articles, or to articles in a particular category, or to a specific artcile.

Note: If your browser does not have RSS reading capability built in, or if you do not have an installed feed reader, you will see the raw XML feed when clicking the RSS icon. You must have a feed reader to use the RSS feature of the wiki.

Troubleshooting wiki markup

The following are common issues that might arise while using wiki markup: Link to a wiki article does not work:

This can happen if the wiki article's title contains certain non-alphanumeric characters. When creating a wiki article, you should ensure that the subject only contains alpha-numeric characters, and those non-alphanumeric characters that are indicated as supported in the "Creating your own article" section of this document.

The link to a wiki article I created is showing as a new page:

This can happen if you typed the wiki article's name incorrectly in the wiki markup for the link, or if the wiki article contains a none alpha-numeric character that isn't supported in the title.

Wiki markup is showing up in the short description of my wiki article from the views in the home page:

If you did not include an abstract in your article, the wiki uses the first 300 characters of the wiki article as the abstract in the views. The views don't parse the wiki markup and displays it as text, so if you have wiki markup or HTML in the first 300 characters of an article that does not include an abstract, then the markup displays in the views. Ensure that you use the "Abstract" field to include a description of your article, or ensure that the first paragraph in your article does not include wiki markup. It's a good idea to include a short description of the article in the abstract field because this description enables readers to assess whether or not the article is what they are looking for without actually opening the article.

Tips for writing a great wiki article

You've always wanted to write a wiki article but thought, "I'm an engineer/administrator, not a writer, how can I get started and write something people want to read?"

Follow these simple rules and you'll be well on your way to becoming a star wiki contributor. It's good for our technical community and good for your career - there's no better way to pull together what you know than to teach someone else about it.

Pick a subject you know about

Your high school English teacher was right. Pick a subject you have real knowledge and expertise about. People read wiki articles to learn something they didn't know before and typically don't want to read a general article written by someone with the same general knowledge they have.

Keep it small

Don't write an article about Java. Write about something you could explain to a co-worker in 10 minutes, say, one specific way to generate a random number using Java.

Don't get side tracked

When writing your article on generating a random number don't get into a esoteric discussion of "what is random" or the history of methods of number generation. Stick to your main subject.

Write lots of drafts

Give your self some time to write a draft and don't be afraid to cut out parts that don't help explain your main subject. Show your article to a co-worker to get some feedback - you might even get a co-author in the process. Come back to it the next day and double check for typos or other errors before posting.

Use pictures and code samples if appropriate

If it helps support your article and makes it easier to understand, use screen shots or simple graphics. If your article is about coding, you might include a code snippet (just make sure it works). But don't feel you MUST use either if they don't really help your article. If you use code or provide a sample, try to make the directory structure match the default structure of the installed version of your product (e,g. the location of Java or the case of the folder names).

Keep it simple

Try to remember that co-worker you were explaining something to and don't use a formal stilted style. Keep your sentences clear and short. One way to keep ideas straight is to use bulleted lists to highlight main ideas. People understand things better when they are chopped into bite-sizes pieces, and it will help you keep your ideas organized when writing the article

Spell out acronyms

The first time you use an acronym, spell it out - for example: "Use of an LJO (Linked Java Object) is recommended for Java code that is more complex than....."

For more information

Provide links to other articles or to other sites that the reader could use to expand their knowledge of the subject you are explaining.

Use markup

Headings help keep the main ideas of your article organized. Use the wiki markup for headings as described above.
Code samples should be enclosed in the code markup to ensure that no characters in your sample are being translated by the parser. Refer to the wiki markup for code samples above.

Keep in contact

After you post your article, check back for comments and question and don't be afraid to answer the comments and edit your original article.

Get writing...

Keep your article light, brief, and full of information you're the expert on an you will have written a great article!

Browser support notes

It is recommended that you use the latest version of your chosen browser to interact with this wiki. For example, Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.6.x, and Google Chrome 6.0.x.

Known issues

This section contains a list of the known issues and common mistakes, and tips for working around them.

Viewing product documentation with Internet Explorer 7

When viewing product documentation using Internet Explorer 7, you might experience a the Web browser freezing for a long period of time, when you choose a documentation set from the navigation. We recommend that you use Internet Explorer 8, or another browser.

Word wrap issues

Large images (wider than say 800 pixels) and long non-breaking strings such as long URL links will "carry" other text along with it and cut off text on the right. In general an image should be no wider than 800 pixels.

If you run into this problem, decrease the width of images below 800 pixels and put long URLs into clickable text using an alias.

Use the code sample markup for all code samples. A width value no greater than 800 pixels is recommended because of non-breaking line issues.
Doing so puts a scrollable box around the code sample. See "Code examples" in this document for details.

Excellent article! And that is coming from somebody who is not only a seasoned Wikipedia editor with thousands of edits, but somebody who also has their own Wikipedia article (for reasons totally unrelated to anything internet related). I've been on both sides, being the person who has deleted at least a hundred vanity attempts of ordinary people trying to get themselves their own article, and also knowing what it takes to keep my own article online. (Hint: it generally involves me NOT getting involved.)

The important thing is that they are properly cited (which doesn't have to include an online link to the article) and that the citation actually supports the fact that you are somehow noteworthy. Quality, not quantity.

A huge point that a wiki editor sometime missed is that you should never, EVER, create an article for yourself. Bias or unbias, there are written rules about that. Don't ever do it. Technically if you have your own article, you're not supposed to edit that yourself either, although you've got a lot more leeway once the article is already established. As for me, I did not create my own article, somebody else did, but when there was a bunch of misinformation in the article (plus the fact that I could provide citation links to help) I still wanted to edit it. Didn't matter - you just don't edit your own article, ever. What I did is first I had to declare (somewhere, it's been a few years) who I was and that I was an active Wikipedia editor that was also the subject of an article. After that, I simply went to the Help section where I could request help from other, independent, totally unbias editors. I explained my situation and the changes that I suggested and since it was all cited and verifiable, another editor agreed and made most of the changes for me. Broke no rules.